Timeline of WHO’s response to COVID-19 - Last updated 30 June 2020https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-06-2020-covidtimeline31 Dec 2019
WHO’s Country Office in the People’s Republic of China picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission from their website on cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China.
The Country Office notified the International Health Regulations (IHR) focal point in the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office about the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission media statement of the cases and provided a translation of it.
WHO’s Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) platform also picked up a media report on ProMED (a programme of the International Society for Infectious Diseases) about the same cluster of cases of “pneumonia of unknown causeâ€, in Wuhan.
Several health authorities from around the world contacted WHO seeking additional information.
My understanding of this entry, which differs significantly from the 31 Dec 2019 entry of WHO's 27 April 2020 timeline update,
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19 , is that China did not report the Wuhan outbreak to WHO. What actually happened is that WHO's China office found the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission's media statement about the outbreak
and one of WHO's groups found a Chinese media report about the outbreak on ProMED, a western source.
